Pray on These

Around the corner from Siddhivinayak is a new shrine where sugar will soon come to be revered and hefty donations will be made in support. This is Debailleul, an uber-pricey Belgian patisserie that opened after much delay in Mumbai yesterday. Would we care for the dark chocolate Voltaire with crème brûlée and crispy rice biscuit? Oh God, yes!

Raise Your Glace

Dreamy colours poke out from in between the black and white sketches of candelabras and carafes, trees and tea time tables that appear inside the pretty chocolate boxes and on the walls at Debailleul. These hues belong to butter-coloured ganache, coral macaroons and the most striking fuschia sorbet to freeze the city. Other show-offs in this pavonine dessert showcase include chocolate, truffles, pastries, tarts, glace (ice cream) and ice cream cakes.

bpb stopped by on opening day to find petite treats and grand prices. We started with the abovementioned Voltaire, a small, smooth dark chocolate dome that guards inside it a delicious secret - vanilla crème brûlée - and costs a whopping Rs 500! This vanilla treat we daintily excavated and paired with our newly discovered fragile treasure – the icy, piquant raspberry sorbet which offset the rich chocolate nicely. Next we got the Mikado, a small ice cream cake that features caramel parfait, vanilla ice cream and pecan nuts perched atop a frozen pear coulis. While the top with its golden swirls and nutty texture was delicious, the bottom, by their own admission, was way too frozen. Had it been left out a little longer, we wouldn’t have had to so brutally chip and chisel our way into its centre. While you’ll find yourself buying the macaroons just for the pretty boxes, more fun are the ice cream versions. 

Tart for Tart’s Sake

At a previous sneak peek tasting, we got our fill of the Belgian tarts and fell in love with the Framboise - a shortbread pastry so prettily arranged with scarlet raspberries, Ms Antoinette would’ve worn it as a hat. Lush and tangy, this was one of our favourites. If you like lemon, skip the bit-too-citrusy macaroons and get the lemon cream meringue baked with just the right amount of zest. The milk chocolate tart is tasty as expected, but the blah-est of the lot. The chocolate section is a whole other story featuring printed carrés, red and pink hued ganache (this one comes highly recommended by MD Hans Pauwels) and snowy truffles, almost outdone by the beautiful boxes they live in.

Breads and spiced hot chocolate will be available starting today.

What's the Occasion?

With two tiny desserts and a sorbet costing Rs 1,200(!), we have to peg Debailleul as a treat temple visited on fancy occasions. No (birthday) bums allowed, please.

Getting there: Debailleul, ground floor, Emca Sadan, Appasaheb Marathe Road, opposite ICICI Bank, Prabhadevi, call 9619487395, Rs 90 for a macaroon, home delivery across Mumbai.

bpb reviews anonymously and pays for its own meals.